When Anne Victoria Martin-McKay relapsed into addiction in early 2025, she lost the place she called home and the security that came with it.
Roughly a year later, on March 26, Martin-McKay, known to her friends and family as Vicki, was found dead in the burned-out remains of a homeless encampment.
The loss has left questions for family members, who had been optimistic she was finally on a lasting path to recovery.
Now, for the sake of preventing another death like Vicki’s, her siblings are calling for more support for people battling the often concurrent challenges of addiction and homelessness.
“The great tragedy of this is that she was doing so well,” said Josh McKay, Vicki’s brother. “She was doing everything right.
“We had been prepared for years to get the call that we had lost her to addiction. We weren’t ready to get the call that we lost her because she was trying to keep warm.”
The circumstances surrounding Vicki’s death remain shrouded in mystery.
Firefighters were dispatched to a wooded area behind a commercial strip on Two Nations Crossing in response to a fire at Victoria Martin-McKay’s encampment on March 26. (Allyson McCormack/CBC)
On the afternoon of March 26, firefighters were called to a wooded area behind a commercial strip on Two Nations Crossing in Fredericton.
They arrived to find a makeshift shelter in flames.
Once the fire was out,
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